Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree 10-20-03 Organizing on the Road I enjoyed Paula Stuart Warren's column on lazy-day organizing. It reminded me of how I dealt with an overwhelming mass of papers recently by organizing them, in our car, of all places. We were making a seven-hundred-mile trip to visit relatives. I packed several boxes of papers in the back seat along with a couple of boxes of file folders. While my husband drove, I put each paper into a file folder and labeled it. I did not try to combine papers on the same topic or person. I simply put each paper in a folder as I came to it. Later at home I combined those files that had duplicate labels. I was amazed at the amount of organizing I was able to do almost effortlessly. Sara Binkley Tarpley Family History Month Project I joined the DNA Project for my line. Hoping to share more family history with my family at Christmas this year. Deborah Dunn Organizing Clipboard To carry Paula Stuart Warren's organizing techniques a step farther, in the office supply stores are clipboards that are about an inch thick. They are made of plastic and the top is hinged so that they open. These are great for research trips. Inside is space for extra papers and for pens, pencils, paper clips, etc. Inside or clipped to the outside of the clipboard is room for a "to do list," a couple of pertinent family group sheets, research record, blank pages, etc. Be sure to leave space inside for the photocopies you make. These clipboards are lightweight and have a handle for carrying. A permanent marker can be used to add your identifying information to it. Mary Crittenden Backup Offsite Having read about George Morgan's recent adventures with lightning, and Megan Smolenyak's adventures with Hurricane Isabel, I'm prompted to add a tip. Like George, I live in Florida with lightning, and like Megan, I sat out a very scary hurricane (Andrew, 1992) in Miami. Back up your data to an off-site location! CD-R and CD-RW drives and disks are now very cheap. Think of the cost of your time energy to recreate your genealogical data and family financial records in case of a disaster. My genealogical data gets backed up about once a quarter to write-once CD-ROMs and copies mailed to a couple of distant cousins in Tennessee and a first cousin and active collaborator in Texas. This is an inexpensive way to make sure your data survives natural disasters. Family financial data gets backed up to the same sort of CD-ROMs and goes into a CD notebook to be grabbed in case of fire evacuation (we live in a heavily wooded area). And another copy goes in my purse to my office to cohabit with my husband's graphics and music backup CDs. Cheers Mary McCall Deane